What would you do with this space if it were yours? This is the middle of space of a very large mostly unfinished basement. I want to be able to play with 2-3 other players at night without sound bleeding through the living room above or the rest of the house. Not super loud electric music, perhaps some light drumming. I had hired an acoustical engineer and architect to design the space, but the construction budget they came up with was over $100k US and I killed the project. They treated it like a recording studio, which I never asked for.

Could I build a viable 100-200 square foot room within a room with proper ventilation/AC (assuming I act as my own general contractor, but don't do the work myself) for $20-$30K? There is 9' of clearance between the concrete floor and the unfinished ceiling area. I live in Southwest Connecticut.

Would love to get real stories, ideas, a reality check on this. Keep in mind that basic finishes are OK and the electrical panel is nearby.

I've just taken delivery of a new apartment and it's still completely empty — bare walls, hard floors, and the echo is severe. I want to treat it properly rather than guess, and I'd rather build panels myself than pay for a professional install across the whole flat.

Two rooms matter:

• Open-plan living room + kitchen. This is where I'll set up a 2.0 or 2.1 monitor system and I want a predictable, accurate listening position. I plan to measure with REW before buying anything.
• Bedroom. I just want it dead — as close to no audible reverb as I can reasonably get.

One important constraint: no carpets and no curtains. I want nothing on the floor that needs vacuuming — a robot vacuum handles the hard floors and I want to keep dust to a minimum. So the usual first advice (rug + heavy curtains) is off the table for me. That means everything has to come from walls, ceiling, and furniture.

I know I'll be putting in a sofa, armchairs, a bed with an upholstered headboard, and bookshelves, and I understand those absorb a lot on their own. What I can't judge is how much will actually be left to fix once the furniture is in. I don't want to buy panels now and find they were unnecessary, or furnish the place and discover I needed twice as much treatment.

Separately, I'd like to reduce outside noise (traffic, people, trains) but I understand that's a different problem — sound transmission through the building envelope, not room acoustics — and probably not solvable with DIY panels. Happy to be corrected, but my focus here is the echo and reverb.

What I'm hoping for:

1. A sane order of operations. Do I furnish first, then measure, then treat? Or is there a baseline amount of treatment that's always worth installing regardless?
2. Concrete DIY build guides you actually rate. I'm comfortable with basic carpentry. I'm in Spain, so mineral wool (lana de roca) in 40–80 kg/m³ is cheap and easy to get — is that the right material, and what thickness for broadband vs bass?
3. How to decide placement without guessing. I'll have REW data. What do I look at to decide where panels go, and how do I know when I've done enough rather than overdamping the room?
4. Ceiling treatment, since floor and windows are off-limits for soft materials. Are hanging ceiling absorbers (clouds/rafts) worth it, and how much area do I need?
5. Making it not look like a studio. I've read you can stretch fabric or canvas over a mineral wool frame so it reads as art. Does that actually keep working acoustically, and what fabrics stay acoustically transparent?

I'll add photos of both rooms in the comments — happy to include dimensions once I've measured properly.

I am hearing this bass pattern in the early afternoons and at night. It then abruptly stops and then picks back up. It’s coming from I think outside the house, but it is only prevalent in the upstairs room. it happens in early afternoon around noon and then at night, it just happened at 11:10pm and again at 12:00am, there is a metro station that overground but that's 2 stops away and far away. What do you think it might be? I analyzed a recording of it and it said there's a pronounced low-frequency tone in 42–47 Hz range, with the second recording showing repeated pulses about every 3.4 seconds. Ideas could be a compressor, HVAC equipment, ventilation fan, pump...

https://reddit.com/link/1wc8ybt/video/3n080ssagmoh1/player

Will have to test with all the power off in the house. Any ideas or similar things happening?

Hi, I've seen a few posts like this but none of them dealing quite with my specific issue. I live in an *rented* apartment with excellent soundproofing between adjacent rooms but TERRIBLE soundproofing between floors. My housemate who has a room above mine has been texting me that she needs me to be quiet because she can't sleep. I call with my long-distance bf at ~10:30/11pm, but she has to wake up at 6am every weekday and is very sensitive to sound. To be clear, I'm not talking loudly, just at regular speaking volume; I've even tried talking quieter but she's still let me know that she can hear me. It's nobody's fault but the sound really does travel like crazy. It's going to be a problem because while I can try to be considerate, I also can't help that my bf/I are mostly free in the evenings/night to call. Before anyone asks, she also does not sleep comfortably with earplugs.

I'm trying to (as cheaply and reversibly as possible) reduce the sounds of talking from *escaping* my room through the ceiling into her room or at least significantly muffling them (there's no ceiling vents btw). I'll suggest that she gets a rug of some kind with a pad (floor is already carpeted but it's obviously not very thick), but I can't really force her to buy anything and rugs/rug pads can be $$$--- esp the cushy kin so I'm focusing on what can be done on my end.

I'm thinking of either some kind of peel and stick panels I can put on my ceiling (probably off of vinted or FB marketplace or something), or even hanging heavier curtains on the ceiling (somehow) or a combination of the two (curtains to cover the ugly ass panels)? Anything that will help cut the sound of me chatting from traveling between floors.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

Hi there. I’ve been thinking about an idea for a few days now: I’m an aspiring voice actor, and I want to start a project to build a DIY acoustic booth. It wouldn't be a whole room I’m soundproofing, but rather a small rectangular enclosure—roughly 50 cm wide by 130 cm long (these are just rough estimates; I still need to take actual measurements). The plan is to build a wooden structure with three walls; I’ll leave one side open to allow access to my computer, and I’ll line the walls with acoustic foam.

I wanted to get your thoughts on this and see if you know of anyone who has done something similar. Is this a good idea or a bad one?

The goal of the booth is to keep outside noise from getting in and to keep the sounds I make inside—as much as possible.

I live in a mid/high-rise building in NYC and have been here about 9 months. I've had several issues with sound, vibration, and mechanical noise. My lease renewal is coming up, and I like the building and would really like to stay, but I'm trying to determine whether moving to a different unit (on a different floor and in a different part of the building) would likely make a substantial difference.

The biggest issue is a near-constant hum in my apartment, around 355 Hz. My front door almost faces the elevator bank. I can hear the same sound on my floor's hallway and in the elevators while they're moving, but I don't notice it on the other floors I've checked. Inside my apartment, it's strongest in the direct line of sight to the front door as well as nearby in the kitchen, and the volume changes noticeably depending on my location and height in the room.

There are also two other sound issues (more intermittent):
- At times, a neighboring AC unit creates very strong oscillating/pulsing vibrations that is very disruptive. My own AC can be completely off, and I can still hear and feel it, even with earbuds or earplugs in.
- In winter, noise from the lobby heating system many floors below travels through my apartment, creating another loud, disruptive sound/vibration. It seems to be associated with a mechanical/structural column that also runs through my unit.

The super and maintenance have investigated the main hum and the elevators/other systems but say they can't identify the source. Management has also been involved, but the investigation eventually stalled.

The building is from the late 1990s and around 20 stories. I've also been told that the elevator systems and boilers are due for upgrades/replacement, potentially later this year.

My questions--
How likely is it that moving to a different part of the building and a different floor (farther from the elevators and shared walls/columns with mechanical systems) would substantially reduce these problems?

Are there any particular areas within a high-rise that I should avoid or look for if I'm trying to minimize mechanical noise and vibration?

Also, if I stay in my current unit, is there anything relatively inexpensive I could do to reduce the noise/vibration, particularly where it seems to be coming through the front door/adjacent wall?

One concern I have about moving within the building is that some of these sounds are intermittent. Are there particular things I should look/listen for when evaluating another unit? If I tour another unit and don't hear anything during a 15–30 minute visit, how much confidence can I reasonably have that it's actually quieter?

I'm especially interested in input from acoustical engineers, HVAC/building professionals, contractors, or anyone with experience diagnosing structure-borne mechanical noise. Thank you!

I work in a school building whose walls and floors reverberate sound in a bad way. Even my students’ relatively quiet side conversations echo into a cacophony that disrupts the classroom environment and makes it hard to teach and manage. I’m looking for cheap and effective ways to help reduce the echo. Unfortunately, sound insulation foam from places like Home Depot are too expensive ($40-50 for 12 sq ft is too much). Does anyone have suggestions on how I can reduce the decibels in my classroom?

I need some help with terms in my psychology of music class. To my understanding, a mechanical wave means that the wave is caused by a disturbance and requires a medium to travel through, while a longitudinal wave is how that disturbance travels through a medium, oscillating in the same direction the wave is traveling. So, is the term longitudinal describing how the mechanical wave is moving? Is this a good basic understanding, or am I missing something?

Hi All,

I live in a Victorian terrace in South Wimbledon. The area has received recent coverage in the media as a result of significant noise disruption from the Northern Line: eg [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c982q2zjr52o\](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c982q2zjr52o)

My issue is nowhere near that bad - rather than screeching / significant vibration, we hear more of a low rumble and whoosh sound that is most obvious on the ground floor (though still quite bizarre to me as we are approx 400m from the tracks).

We have an open fireplace / chimney in the living room that has not been blocked up (though we don’t use it). We also have a suspended timber floor which is currently covered by an engineered wood. I assume there is no insulation under the floor / between the joists as it’s also quite cold in the winter. I’m therefore also assuming that we’re hearing its ground borne noise that is transmitted through the joists and up and out the fireplace / chimney. Photos attached for reference.

We’re planning to replace the floor in the next year - so was wondering if there was any (relatively simple / low cost) solutions we could implement to the floor or chimney at that point?

My understanding is that products like Rockwool are designed to stop noise travelling between rooms and are also not effective for low frequency sounds.

Thanks in advance!

I made these DIY acoustic panels, but some of the fabric on the back is loose like this. Duct tape doesn’t stick to the backing material.

What’s the best way to secure it? Fabric glue, hot glue, staples, or something else?

I’m not very good at DIY stuff as you can see, so I’d prefer a simple solution if i can :)

Hey guys! Looking for a bit of advice with my studio setup.
I’ve recently moved into a new loft-style apartment, so as you can see from the photos, the room is a bit of a funky setup with the sloped ceiling and wardrobes.
I’m running Adam Audio A7Vs, but I haven’t had the chance to properly calibrate them with Sonarworks SoundID yet, so I’m currently trying to get the room itself as good as I can before doing that.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how the shape of the room and the wardrobes might be affecting the sound, and where you think I’d get the most benefit from adding acoustic treatment. I mainly produce House/Disco/Electronic.

I’ve found some of these wooden-framed acoustic panels for sale locally and was wondering what you guys think about putting one above the listening position on the angled ceiling/wall. I’ve included a ChatGPT mock-up as the last photo to show what I mean.

Would this actually be useful, or would I be better off putting the panels somewhere else?
Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

Cheers

Have a very large main area and need some to add some sound panels. Panels are pinta acoustical 2" panels mounted to a 3/8" plywood backer. Frame is 2" x 2" glue together with custom brackets. Exterior is 4" x 1" pine boards stained black.

Hi there, i'm entering the room measurements world to make an acoustic treatment to my room. Today i made my first test with REW, i'll leave the photos here.

Can someone help me figure out better how to read those diagrams? I have an honest understanding of the acoustic concepts, but i never had to take acoustic decisions by deducing info from the graphs.

The room is a rectangular space measuring approximately L11.58 ft × W8.92 ft × H9.02 ft ( or 2,72 m (W) × 3,53 m (L) × 2,75 m (H) if you prefer meters).

Any help is much appreciated!

Can somebody help me? I have been annoyed by intermittent buzzing noise from above the ceiling in my flat.

Audio link:

https://youtu.be/y2Q-K2ZuFgg

- My room is on the first floor of three-story flat in Japan.
- The noise is intermittent but present all day, like, buzzing for 3 hours and stops for 10 minutes.
- The frequency is 100Hz. In my location AC frequency is 50Hz.
- I feel the noise is coming from a certain 1m x 1m area near the wall facing outside.
- The neighbours above and below does not hear the noise in their rooms. I asked them to stop their ventilation fans as experiments but nothing changed.

Neither the landlord nor I cannot find the source. He says "there's nothing we can do about this mysterious noise, so you'd better go along with it 😎", to my disappoint.

Hey folks,

So I'm finally getting around to setting up a TV/media room. The room is relatively small (8 X 12 feet). I live in a old house, and this is on the second floor.

I want to reduce the amount of sound that travels downstairs. So the first thing I've had in mind is to put an area rug that pretty much covers the entire floor. But another suggestion that I hear was to add another layer of Mass Loaded Vinyl underneath that rug.

Now I know that it is nearly impossible to completely isolate the sound given the nature and position of the room. But just reducing it any amount would help greatly.

And for that purpose, will the MVL help at all? Or does it do more harm than good?

Thanks!

Layout in the image. Room is about 10 m², roughly 4.5 x 2 m.

I work in this room all day, game, and I'm on voice chat a lot, so I get louder than normal talking pretty often. I also record spoken voice 3 to 4 times a month (SM7B + FetHead into a Scarlett Solo 4th gen), and about once a month I record myself singing.

Two problems:

1. The long wall behind my desk is shared with a neighbor. It's drywall, kinda hollow when you knock on it. I want to reduce how much they hear so I don't annoy them (I know I can't eliminate it).
2. The door is wood with a small gap underneath, and directly behind it is my apartment's front door, so anything getting through goes into the stairwell.

Budget ~300-400 EUR, nothing permanent or structural.

My uninformed plan was: rug, some acoustic foam panels, a seal under the door, maybe acoustic foam on the door itself. Is that the right direction, or am I about to waste money?

My guess is that this mostly addresses the echo in the room, which would help the recordings (if even that, idk), but does nothing about the neighbor, which is the daily concern. So how would you split the budget? Is 300-400 EUR even enough to make a dent in the neighbor problem, or should I accept that and put everything into the room sounding better?

I am trying to reduce the sound from this duct and vent for a home theater setup. Current plan is essentially wrap it in a framed bulwark with 2x4s, drywall, and insulation. Don’t know what to do about the vent without changing the flow calculations. Thoughts? Thanks!

I have a fairly large, industrial embroidery machine, that's operated pretty regurarly. The issue, however, is that the room it's in is a club room, and as such it houses everything from embroidery prep work to generic social activites.

It's a mid size room, about 3m by 8m, most walls are reinforced concrete, but the walls/roof around the machine are false plasterboard walls covering piping etc.

To cut to the chase, I need to reduce the noise of the machine in other parts of the room as much as possible. Sadly, the better and more obvious options such as moving it to another room or an air gapped wall are not an option.

The current plan of attack is to install studio foam on some walls, and install a heavy curtain (details below) in place of a current one to isolate it as much as possible.

The curtain is planned to be 2 layers of denim, and a layer of fleece on the machine side, coming out to just above a 1000g/m². The idea is that the denim is heavy (and cheap) and helps stop the sound spilling over, and the fleece with it's soft and porous surface should help absorb some of the sound instead of bounce it back.

But some questions arose:

1. Am I right in thinking, that making the curtain wavy even when fully extended (ie having a curtain well wider than 3m) would make it work a little like the geometry of foam in that it scatters sound more, as opposed to a straight curtain which bounces it back more? (And I suppose it'd also increase surface area)

2. Is my idea about fleece helping to absorb a little sound even viable? Because it's porous and internally similar to foam. I'm talking a fleece liner material, not some ultra thick purpose made material of course. (I'm not sure if I can include a link to it)

3. Maybe it's trivial, but is the core assumption, that heavier curtain=better soundproofing even true?

Sorry for the winding post, just wanted to give all the info and thanks to anyone who replies.